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Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City discovered near Palenque, Kingdom of Guatemala, in America; from the Original Report of Captain Don Antonio dal Rio: followed by a Critical Investigation into the History of the Americans, by Doctor Paul F. Cabrera. 4to. pp. 198. London 1822. H. Berthoud.

This volume, mixed with some curious matter, contains about as fanciful an antiquarian hypothesis as we ever met with. The gallant Captain del Rio having surveyed and reported upon a certain mass of ruins in New Spain, the learned Doctor Cabrera has made it the foundation of a theory in which he traces the original population of America as plainly as if, like Edie Ochiltree, he "minded the bigging o't."

A Preface impresses on readers the authenticity of the original MS. of del Rio, which lies at the Publisher's for the inspection of the sceptical. Though written in 1787, the prevalent Spanish apathy suffered his Report to lie among the Archives unnoticed till the late movements of revolution brought it to light. The Ruins to which it relates seem almost as little known as the MS.; for, we are told that even at Mexico and Guatemala they are ignorant of their existence. Dr. Cabrera, however, had heard of them before 1794, when he composed his Researches; and Humboldt mentions them on rumour, never having been himself in the quarter where their site is laid down. This locality is about fifteen miles from Palenque, in the province of Cuidad Real de Chiapa. The natives call the place Casa de Piedras, Stone Houses, from fourteen solid buildings of stone still remaining; and the ruins extend from 7 to 8 leagues in length, though in proportion narrow, in parts not exceeding half a league.

When Captain Del Rio reached the spot, agreeably to King of Spain's command, he found it necessary to fell and clear away the wood, in order to survey the buildings. He employed the Indians in this labour, and afterwards in making the excavations which his investigation required. The situation is described as being very fine, on a mountain, surrounded by the River Micol, in a fertile country, with many rivers abounding in físh, a delicious climate, and rich in all that could render life easy and luxurious. The ruins of this "Palencian" City are further said to resemble Roman Ruins; and the remains of an aqueduct confirms our author in opinion, that the new world was not unknown to these masters of the old. Similar ruins in Yucatan are alleged in confirmation of this doctrine. The buildings are said to resemble the gothic in their interior, and a print is given of one of the most remarkable of them, which, in our opinion, is sufficient in itself to overthrow the theory of their very remote antiquity. To talk of medallions, figures in stucco, relievos, devices, &c. &c. at the assigned period, is little short of the grossest absurdity. Of the flint lances, conical pyramids, earthen jars, hearts of dark stone called Challa, and even balls of vermilion, found in digging, we shall say nothing, except that most of these articles tend to prove the futility of the Antiquarian's arguments.

To these arguments we shall therefore address ourselves very briefly. Dr. Cabrera quotes Calmet and Moctezuma, Eusebius and Nunez de la Vega, Diodorus and Clavigero, and many other authorities, to show (in the absence of all the annals and records of Spanish America, which were destroyed by its Catholic conquerors in their zeal to efface every recollection of pagan idolatry,) that an individnal named Votan (signifying "Heart,") was acquainted with the old and new Continents, and passed to and fro, four times, across the Atlantic!!! To support this assertion he appeals to South American MSS., metallic plates found, and the rude effigies in stone at the Palencian City. From these data he argues that Votan was the third of his race; that he led seven families to Mexico and settled them there; and that other families of the same tribe, called Culebra, or Snake, also found their way to the adjacent provinces. Votan is therefore declared to be "the first populator of the New World;" yet we hear of the intermarriage of his people with natives of a different race! In one of the documents rested upon, the following dictum is set down as issuing from the mouth of Votan -- "I am Culebra because I am Chivim;" and this the learned Commentator says, "with a little study, admits of a clear and convincing explanation"! We confess that we think his explanation quite the reverse; for it amounts to no more than an unsubstantial and idle assertion, that Votan therein shows that "he is a Hivite originally of Tripoli in Syria, which he calls Valum Chivim, where he landed in his voyages to the old Continent." These were pretty voyages for that age of the world, from Tripoli at the bottom of the Mediterranean, to Hispaniola and the Gulf of Mexico!! We beg our readers to observe what that age was, agreeable to Dr. Cabrera. It appears from Nunes de la Vega, that Votan was the grandson of Noah, and had probably therefore studied navigation during the Flood. He had seen the Tower of Babel, and was sent by God to divide and portion out the Indian lands. Elsewhere Votan is held to be the offspring of the Tyrian Hercules, and it is maintained that Hispaniola or "Septimania, beyond a doubt the island of Atlantis," was his place of resort for peopling the continent of America. In this arrangement, instead of Babel, it is said to be Rome which the mighty traveller visited, and the epoch is fixed to a year by the building of a temple to Romulus and Remus, A.U.C. 464.

Upon this point we shall say no more. If our epitome has explained the original peopling of America to our readers, it will be an unexpected pleasure to us, as we candidly acknowledge that it has not produced that degree of knowledge in our own minds. Perhaps they may entertain doubts, and think the hypothesis at least as rational which supposes the tide of population to have flowed from the North. Nevertheless they must not fancy Votan a mere nobody. All the accounts, pictures, and representations of him lithographed (as they were found) in stone, show us a warrior of early times resembling such as Persepolis, as Thebes, and other ancient monuments exhibit. No doubt he was one of the demigods of Mexican history; but as for being the grandson of Noah, or even of Hercules Tyrius, and playing the part of an Anson, Cook, or Captain Parry somewhere about the year One, we do not attach the slightest degree of credit to the fact.

Several singular prints illustrate Dr. Cabrera's opposite opinion, but for want of proper references to them the whole work is obscure, and in parts altogether unintelligible. The printers too have done their duty carelessly.

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Art. IV. Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City, discovered near Palenque, in the Kingdom of Guatemala, in Spanish America: translated from the Original Manuscript Report of Captain Don Antonio del Rio, followed by a Critical Investigation and Research into the History of the Americas. By Doctor Paul Felix Cabrera, of the city of New Gautemala. 4to. pp. xiv, 128. (17 plates.) Price 1 l. 8 s. London. 1822.

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[pp. 555-56]



TOPOGRAPHY.

[ 18-19 ]

St. Bartholomew de los Llanos is also a very large village; it has two churches, and the population, including that of some contiguous cultivated possessions, amounts to 7410 souls.

St. Domingo Comitan, is the residence of the deputy-intendant of the province, and celebrated for its commerce; there is a good convent of the Dominicans; with the inhabitants of some neighbouring plantations the population amounts to 6815 persons.

St. Jacinto Ocosingo, chief place of the province of Tzendales, has more than 3000 inhabitants.

St. Domingo Palenque a village in the province of Tzendales, on the borders of the intendancies of Ciudad Real and Yucatan. It is the head of a curacy; in a wild and salubrious climate, but very thinly inhabited, and now celebrated from having within its jurisdiction the vestiges of a very opulent city, which has been named Ciudad del Palenque; doubtless, formerly the capital of an empire whose history no longer exists. This metropolis, -- like another Herculaneum, notindeed overwhelmed by the torrent of another Vesuvius, but concealed for ages in the midst of a vast desert, -- remained unknown until the middle of the eighteenth century, when some Spaniards having penetrated the dreary solitude, found themselves, to their great astonishment, within sight of the remains of what once had been a superb city, of six leagues in circumference; the solidity of its edifices, the stateliness of its palaces, and the magnificence of its public works, were not surpassed in importance by its vast extent; temples, altars, deities, sculptures, and monumental stones, bear testimony to its great antiquity. The hieroglyphics, symbols, and emblems, which have been discovered in the temples, bear so strong a resemblance to those of the Egyptians, as to encourage the supposition that a colony of that nation may have founded the city of Palenque, or Culhuacan. The same opinion may be formed respecting that of Tulha, the ruins of which are still to be seen near the village of Ocosingo in the same district. ...

[ 207-209 ]




CHAP. IX.

Of the Southern Provinces of Guatemala.

THE  PROVINCE  AND  INTENDANCY  OF  CIUDAD
REAL  DE  CHIAPA.

The native authors do not agree in their accounts of the origin of the Indians of this district. Antonio de Remesal, in his History of the Province of St. Vincent de Chiapa and Guatemala, (lib. 5, cap. 13,) positively asserts, that the people of Chiapa originally came from the province of Nicaragua. The Quiche; manuscript, already spoken of, says, that the Quelenes and Chapanecos are descendants of a brother of King Nimaquiche, who accompanied him from the city of Tula. Nunez de la Vega, bishop of Chiapa, in the preface to his Diocesan Constitutions, states, that he met with certain calendars in the language of these Indians, in which mention was made of 20 lords, or heads of families, from whom it appears this people derived their origin. Their names were Ninus, or Mox, Ygh, Votan, Ghanan, Abagh, Tox, Moxic, Lambat, Molo, or Mulu, Elab, Batz, Evob, Been, Hix, Tziquin, Chabin, Chic, Chinax, Cahogh, and Aghual. Of all these magnates, Votan seems to have been the most celebrated personage, as a separate work is devoted to his particular history. In this he is said to have seen the great wall (by which the tower of Babel is meant) that was built by order of his grandfather Noe, from the earth to the sky; and that, at this place, to every people a different language was given. It farther says, that Votan was the first person whom God sent to this country, to divide the lands, and apportion them among the Indians; and adds, that Votan was at Huehueta, a town of Soconusco, where he introduced Dantas, and concealed a treasure. This treasure was discovered in a cave by Nunez de la Vega; it consisted of some earthen jars, on which were represented figures of the ancient Gentile Indians. If credit be given to the manuscripts, it follows that we must consider these regions to have been peopled shortly after the deluge; since Votan, who was at Babel when they were building the tower, and the human race was dispersed and separated by different languages, was one of the founders of the Indian population. By parity of reasoning we must also admit, that the languages of these provinces are some of the primitive dialects, into which the Almighty divided the language of the post-diluvian patriarchs. From the same cause we shall be led to believe, that the first inhabitants of America did not, according to the most generally received opinion, arrive at it by way of the straits of Anian; for had that been the fact, many years, and many generations, must have passed away before they could have extended thence into these regions under the torrid zone, at a distance so immense from the straits.

One fact, however, is beyond controversy, viz. that this province was inhabited by a powerful and polished people, who maintained an intercourse with the Egyptians, as the sumptuous cities of Culhuacan and Tulha, vestiges of which yet remain near the towns of Palenque and Ocosingo, evidently demonstrate. In the first, some remaining buildings are objects of admiration, and afford sufficient evidence that Culhuacan once rivalled in magnificence the most celebrated capitals of the old world. Stately temples, in which many hieroglyphics, symbols, devices, and traces of fabulous mythology, have resisted the effect of time: portions of superb palaces still remain; and an aqueduct, of sufficient dimensions for a man to walk upright in, yet exists almost entire. Previous, however, to the arrival of the Spaniards, this province had so much declined from its ancient splendour, that they found neither inhabited city nor building worthy of their attention, nor civilization or polity in the inhabitants.

Remesal, continuing the history of the Chapanecos from the place before cited, says, that the Indians who had migrated from Nicaragua, determined upon remaining on the lands of Chiapa, and made choice of a steep mountain with a rocky summit, near the margin of a river, and of very difficult access, on which they settled their colony; there they fortified themselves as strongly as they could, resolving never to submit to the dominion of the Mexicans. When the empire of the latter was overthrown, the Indians of Chiapa, in the name of themselves, and of the nations of the Zoques, Celtales, and Quelenes, whom they had brought under their subjection by force, made an offer to Cortes of acknowledging themselves vassals of the king of Castile. The historian does not name the person who was deputed by Cortes to receive this homage; but he says the natives were soon disgusted by the conduct of the Spaniards, and revolted from their new allegiance in 1524. As soon as intelligence of this insurrection was brought to Cortes, he detached Diego de Mazariegos, with 150 soldiers and 40 horses, to quell it. The expedition was joined by many principal persons, who wished to withdraw from the disunion which had then commenced in Mexico, and by a great number of Mexican and Tlascaltecan Indians. Mazariegos, by his prudence and moderation, easily and speedily persuaded the Chapanecos to submit; and immediately returned to Mexico, but with the design of coming back to settle in this province, to prevent future insubordination. During his absence, the Chapanecos again became refractory, and the affairs of the Spaniards were placed in a situation much worse than they were during the first tumult.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, an author of veracity and candour, narrates the events of this conquest...

[ 19-21 ]

... On the south of Lake Ontario, are two alluvial formations, of which the most recent is north of the ridge road. No forts have been discovered on it, although many have been observed south of the mountain ridge. The non-existence of forts on the secondary or primary alluvial formations of Lake Ontario, is a strong circumstance, from which the remote antiquity of those on the highlands to the south may be deduced; because, if they had been erected after the first or last retreat of the lake, they would undoubtedly have been made on them as most convenient, and best adapted for all military, civil, and domestic purposes.

These remains of art may be viewed as connecting links of a great chain, which extends beyond the confines of our state, and becomes more magnificent and curious as we recede from the northern lakes, pass through Ohio into the great vale of the Mississippi, thence to the Gulf of Mexico, through Texas into New Mexico and South America. In this vast range of more than three thousand miles, these monuments of ancient skill gradually become more remarkable for their number, magnitude, and interesting variety, until we are lost in admiration and astonishment, to find, as Baron Humboldt informs us, in a world which we call new, ancient institutions, religious ideas, and forms of edifices, similar to those of Asia, which there seem to go back to the dawn of civilization.

Over the great secondary region of the Ohio, are the ruins of what once were forts, cemeteries, temples, altars, camps, towns, villages, race-grounds and other places of amusement, habitations of chieftains, videttes, watch-towers, and monuments.

It is, says Mr. Atwater, nothing but one vast cemetery of the beings of the beings of past ages. Man and his works, the mammoth, tropical animals, the cassia tree and other tropical plants, are here reposing together in the same formation. By what catastrophe they were overwhelmed and buried in the same strata, it would be impossible to say, unless it was by that of the general deluge.

In the valley of the Mississippi, the monuments of buried nations are unsurpassed in magnitude and melancholy grandeur by any in North America. Here cities have been traced. similar to those of ancient Mexico, once containing hundreds of thousands of souls. Here are to be seen thousands of tumuli, some a hundred feet high, others many hundred feet in circumference, the places of their sepulchre, their worship, and perhaps of their defence. Similar mounds are scattered throughout the continent, from the shores of the Pacific into the interior of our state, as far as Black river, and from the lakes to South America.

There is one class of antiquities which present themselves on digging from thirty to fifty feet below the surface of the ground. They occur in the form of firebrands split wood, ashes, coals, and occasionally tools and utensils, buried to these depths by the alluvion. They have been observed (as Dr. Mitchell says he was informed) in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and elsewhere. When facts of this description, so curious for the inquisitive geologist and historian, shall have been collected and methodized, light may possibly be shed upon the remote Pelasgians, and upon the traditionary Atlantides.

Philosophers and antiquaries concur in opinion, that these remains of art evince the remote existence of nations far more civilized than the indigenes of the present race; than, at least, of any known tribes of North America.

The antiquities of this state are, in the opinion of Mr. Clinton, demonstrative evidence of the existence of a vast population settled in towns, defended by forts, cultivating agriculture, and more advanced in civilization than the nations which have inhabited the same countries since the European discovery.

It is in reference to the stupendous and curious works of art, and not to mere mounds, that this coincidence in opinion appears. Mounds may indicate a race different indeed from the present, without evidencing any extraordinary advancement in improvement. Serving as sepulchres and altars, whereupon the officiating priests could be seen by the surrounding worshippers, they might be traced from Wales, across the Russian empire, to our continent, and from the shores of the Pacific to the eastern end of lake Ontario....


The inquiries now arise: -- Who erected these works? Whence originated these wonderful people? Were they the primitive ancestors of the indigenes of our state? What is the story of their first migration and settlements; their progress from rudeness to comparative refinement; their retrogression into barbarism? What terrible disasters precipitated their ruin, exterminated their national existence, and blotted out their name, perhaps for ever? In reply -- while there are a few remnants of tradition to guide inquiry, and volumes of conjecturers to bewilder, not one authentic record remains of even the name of any of these populous and powerful nations.

In the revolutions of other people, in the downfall of other empires, relics are found, spots visited, architectural ruins traced, which history, or poetry, or mythological fable has identified with the fame and fate of the nation, or of some hero, statesman, philosopher, poet, orator, or artist, who was its ornament, and who reflected glory upon the age in which he flourished.

The classic remains of Greece and Italy, the venerable relics of Carthagenian and Egyptian antiquity, the spot where Ilium towered, and the ground over which were strewed the remains of Asia Minor, are associated with the reminiscences painfully pleasing, but memorably instructive and impressive....

But who can trace amid the ruins of the temples, and groves, and fortifications, and once flourishing seats of the aborigines, the rise, progress, and decline of a single nation, tribe, or once celebrated individual, as distinguishable from the common mass of millions, who have been swallowed into the abyss of successive ages? Where are their sages, their heroes, their politicians, their orators, their poets, their artists, their historians? All, all are covered by a pall, and invested with a sleep, more impenetrable and profound than the total darkness and deep slumber of the middle ages!

Whatever has survived in the shape of tradition, deserves to be recorded....

72.            Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins.            [Part 1.

§ 14.

Mr. Jefferson was of opinion that emigrants might have easily passed from the north-east of Asia, or north-west of Europe into America; but he considered the red Americans more ancient than those of Asia, upon the assumption that radical changes of language among the former have taken place in greater numbers, than they have among the latter. *

Some philosophers, considering this continent coexistent with that of Asia, are not more willing to yield to the latter any claim to remote antiquity over the former, then they are to Europe a pretension to physical superiority, so arrogantly maintained by Du Pauw and Buffon, but so ably refuted by Mr. Jefferson and the Abbe Clavigero.

We hereto fore observed that Baron Humboldt (54) was astonished to find in the New World, so called, institutions, religious ideas, and edifaces, flourishing in the fifteenth century, which in Asia indicated the dawn of civilization. Abbe Clavigero (55) thought the first American people descended from different families after the confusion of tongues, and that the language and customs of the Asiatics will in vain be examined for the origin of the people of the New World. It is his belief that there has been an equinoctial union of America and Africa, as well as a former connexion at the north with Asia and Europe.

§ 15.

Siquenza (whose opinion was adopted by Bishop Huet) supposed that the Mexicans belonged to the posterity of Naphtuhim, and that their ancestors left Egypt not long after the confusion of tongues, and travelled towards America. This is a conjecture which Abbe Clavigero considers well supported, but not sufficiently sustained to be pronounced a truth.

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* Notes on Virginia. See Dr. Jarvis's Discourse, note C. in Vol. III, N. Y. Hist. Coll. p. 227-228.

§ 15.]                           Romans -- Africans -- Votan.                           73.

The ruins of an ancient city near Palenque, in the province of Chiapa, and kingdom of Guatemala, in Spanish America, are described as exhibiting the remains of magnificent edifaces, temples, towers, aqueducts, statues, hieroglyphics, and unknown characters. This city (since called the Palencian city) was first discovered by Captain Antonio Del Rio, in 1787. He says in his report, * that the town appears to have been seven or eight leagues in length, and at least half a league in breadth; that from a Romish similarity in location, in that of a subterranean stone aquaduct, and from certain figures in Stucco, he thought that an intercourse once existed between the original natives and Romans. The Palencian edifices are of very remote antiquity, having been buried for many ages in the impenetrable thickets covering the mountains, and unknown to the historians of the new world.

Among the few historical works that escaped the flames of the Spanish conquerors, (who destroyed most of the memorials of the natives) was an ancient narrative, which is said to have fallen into the hands of the bishop of Chiapa, who refers to it in his Diocesan Constitution, printed at Rome, 1702. This was the narrative of Votan, which it is conjectured by Doct. Cabrera, of New Guatemala, † may still be extant. A copy (as Doct. C. believes) of the original, in hieroglyphics, (taken soon after the conquest) was communicated to him in a memior from a learned friend.

From an interpretation of this copy of the hieroglyphic narrative of Votan, he is made to say, that he conducted seven families from Valum Votan to this continent, and assigned lands to them; that he is the third of the Votans; that having determined to travel till he arrived at the root of heaven, in

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* See Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City, &c. from the MS of Don Antonio del Rio, and Teatro Critico Americano, or Critical Investigation, &c. into the history of the Americans, by Doct. Paul Felix Cabrera, Lond. 1822.

† Ib. Descrip. of Ruins, &c.

74.            Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins.            [Part 1.

order to discover his relations, the Culebreas, * and make himself known to them, he made four voyages to Chivim; that he arrived in Spain, and went to Rome; that he saw the great house of God building, &c.

According to Doctor Cabrera's hypothesis, the figures and deities of the Palacian city, and particularly the hieroglyphics, are Egyptian. A maritime communication existed between the American and African continents, in the very remotest ages of antiquity. The grandfather of Votan was a Hivite, originally of Tripoli, in Syria, (of a nation famous for having produced Cadmus) and was the first populator of the New World. That Votan, his grandson, made four voyages to the old continent, and landed at Tripoli. The earliest inhabitants consequently came from the east to America, proceeded from its eastern part to the northward, and again descended. At any rate, this, according to Dr. Cabrara, is the solution of the grand historical problem, so far as it regards the first peopling of the countries bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and islands adjacent. He admits, that from various accidents since the introduction of the art of navigation, it is probable that many other families, besides those conducted hither by Votan, may have been conveyed to different parts of America and formed settlements.

Among the ruins of the Palacian city, were found several figures and idols. Agreeably to the Doctor's interpretation of these figures, Votan is represented thereon as on both continents, with an historical event, the memory of which he was desirous of transmitting to future ages. His voyages to, and return from, the old continent, are also depicted. One of the idols, bearing a mitre or cap, with bull's horns, and found in the temple of the city, is the Osiris, and another, the Isis of the Egyptians. These transmarine deities were known also to the Greeks, Romans, and Phoenicians.

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* How striking are these incidents, compared with those related of Madoc! See p. 54, and note 22. Are the words Valum Votan, Culebras, Chivim, &c. of Welsh etymology?

§ 15.]                                             Votan.                                            75.

In order to sustain his conclusion, the Doctor is forced to enter upon a train of bold conjecture. The speeches of Montezuma, (who has already been claimed as the descendant of Madoc by his advocates) to Cortes, on his submission to the domination of Charles V, and his address to the chiefs and caciques, are supposed to refer to the arrival and departure of Votan.

In the range of his conjectures, while attempting to trace the affinity of Votan's grandfather with the ancient Hivites, their migration to Egypt, and the antiquity of Votan's voyage, and those of his grandson, the Doctor enters learnedly into ancient mythology, and lays much stress upon the opinion of the benedictine Calmet, in his commentary on the Old Testament, and upon Hornius, as cited by Calmet.

Accordingly, on the ingress of the Hebrews into Palestine, and in consequence of the Hebrew wars, the Canaanites, who were expelled by Joshua and the judges, fled into Egypt, persued their course to the remotest regions of �frica, having occupied its coasts gradually, as they were oppressed by the Hebrew wars, (though many of the Hivites abandoned their dwellings before Joshua entered Palestine;) that these colonies existed prior to the Trojan was, (the era of which is 240 years after the death of Joshua) became Greeks returning thence, found that every part of the coast of Africa where they landed, had been already peopled by the Phoenicians; that on this point, Greek and Latin writers agree, according to the testimony of Bochart, in his work entitled Canaan, and of Hornius, on the origin of the people of America, lib. 2, cap. 3, 4, quoted by Calmet. Hence the foundation of the first colony in America, by the grandfather of Votan. Hornius, supported by the authority of Strabo, affirms, as certain, that voyages from Africa and Spain into the Atlantic Ocean, were both frequent and celebrated, adding, from Strabo, that Eudoxius, sailing from the Arabian gulf to Ethiopia and India, found the prow of a ship that had been wrecked, which, from having the head of a horse carved on it, he knew belonged to a Phoenician bark, and some Gaditani merchents declared it

76.            Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins.            [Part 1.

to have been a fishing vessel. Laertius relates nearly the same circumstance. Hornius says, that in very remote ages, three voyages were made to America, the first by Atlantes, or descendants of Atlas, who gave his name to the ocean, and the islands, Alantides: this name Plato appears to have learned from the Egyptian priests, the general custodes of antiquity. The secod voyage, mentioned by Hornius, is given on the authority of Diodorus Siculus, lib. 5, cap. 19, where he says, the Phoenicians, having passed the columns of Hercules, and impelled by the violence of the winds, abandoned themselves to its fury; and after experiencing many tempests; were driven upon an island in the Atlantic Ocean, distant many days sail to the westward of the coast of Lybia. This island, upon which were large buildings, had a fertile soil, and navigable rivers. The report of this discovery soon spread among the Carthaginians and Romans, the former being harrased by the wars of the latter, and the people of Mauritania, sent a colony to that island with great secrecy, that, in the event of being overcome by their enemies, they might possess a place of retreat.

But acccording to Doct. Cabrera, Votan's ancestors must have emigrated prior to this second voyage of the Phoenicians, for the latter found houses, &c. and anterior to the Punic wars.

The other voyage in the Atlantic, spoken of by Calmet, was anterior to the preceeding, and is that attributed to Hercules, who is the supposed author of the Gaditanian columns, and whom Calleo ranks as contemporary with Moses, and chief of the Canaanites, who left Palestine on the invasion of Joshua. The Hivites founded the kingdom of Tyre. Sallus affirms, that the soldiers of Hercules Tyrius, and their wives, spoke the African language. Diodorus asserts, that one Hercules navigated the whole circuit of the earth, and built the city of Alecta in Septimania. From what Doct. Cabrera considers an irrefragable body of evidence, founded upon the coincidence of the memorials of writers of the old continent,

§ 16.]                                             Votan.                                            77.

Votan, the grandson of Hercules, and author of the narrative, was the third of his race, and flourished between three and four hundred years before the Christian era. The Romans and Carthaginians derived their first knowledge of America from Votan himself, on his return to the old continent, and his visit to Rome; and the first Carthaginian colony was sent previous to the first Punic war, and after the information thus communicated.

This hypothesis is not, it seems, founded upon that of an ancient union of the two continents.

§ 16.

So formidable, however, have been the interposing difficulties, as viewed by the learned, in arriving at any certainty when and whence came the first people of America, and how and when animals first appeared there, * that many suppose, (for instance, Acosta, Grotius, Buffon, and Abbe Clavigero,) that this continent was once connected with the old continents, and by some great convulsion, the communications have been destroyed. There cannot be any doubt that our planet has

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* See Barton'd Views. Reese's New Cyclop.

78.            Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins.            [Part 1.

been subject to great vicissitudes since the deluge. Lands over which ships once sailed, are now the seats of cultivation; lands which were formerly cultivated, are now covered by water. Earthquakes have swallowed some lands, subterraneous fires have thrown up others. Rivers have formed new soil with their mud; the sea has retreated from shores and lengthened the land; or advancing, diminished it, or separated territories which were united, and formed new straits and gulfs. Pliny, Seneca, Diodorus, and Strabo, report a great many instances of such vicissitudes. According to them, Spain and Africa were united, and by a violent irruption of the ocean upon the land between the mountains Abyla and Calpe, that communication was broken, and the Mediterranean sea formed. Sicily had been united to the continent with Naples, and Eubes, (the Black sea,) to Boeotia. The people of Ceylon have a tradition that an irruption of the sea separated their island from the peninsula of India; so those of Malabar, with respect to the isles of Malvidia; and by the Malayans with respect to Sumatra. (56) It is certain, says the Count de Buffon, that in Ceylon the earth has lost by the sea thirty or forty leagues, while Tongres, a place in the low countries, has gained thirty leagues of land from the sea. The northern part of Egypt owes its existence to the innundation of the Nile. The earth which this river has brought from the inland countries of Africa, and deposited in its innundations, has formed a soil more than twenty-five cubits of depth. * In like manner, adds the above author, the province of the Yellow river in China, and that of Louisiana, have been formed from the mud of rivers. The peninsula of Yucatan, in America, no doubt was once the bed of the sea. In the channel of the Bahama, indications appear of a former existing union of Cuba with Florida. In the strait which separates America from Asia, are many islands, which probably were the mountains belonging to that tract of land, which we suppose to have been swallowed by earthquakes, a probability

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* Ali Bey maintains (in his travels) that the great African desert was once an ocean.

§ 16.]                                 Union of Continents.                                79.

strengthened by the knowledge we have of the multitude of volcanos in the peninsula of Kamschatka. The sinking of that land, and the separation of the two continents, however, is imagined to have been occasioned by those great and extraordinary earthquakes mentioned in the history of the Americans, which formed an era almost as memorable as that of the deluge. (57) Abbe Clavigero is pursuaded that there was an ancient union between the equinoctial countries of America and those of Africa, and a united continuation of the northern countries of America with those of Europe or Asia; the latter affording a passage for beasts of cold climes, the former for quadrupeds and reptiles peculiar to hot climes. He also believes that there was formerly a great tract of land, which united the now most eastern part of Brazil to the most western part of Africa, and that all that space of land may have been sunk by some violent earthquakes, leaving only some traces of it in the isles of Cape de Verd, Fernando de Norona, Ascension, St. Matthew, and others, and the many sand-banks discovered by different navigators, and particularly by De Bauche, who sounded the sea with particular care and exactness. Those islands and sand-banks may probably have been the highest parts of that sunken continent. It is also the belief of the Abbe Clavigero, that the most westerly part of America was formerly united by means of a smaller continent to the most easterly part of Tartary, and perhaps America was united also by Greenland with the northern countries of Europe. Dr. Foster entertained an opinion, which however he afterwards questioned, that Friesland, (larger according to Hakluyt than Ireland) to which the Venetian Zenos in the beginning of the fourteenth century proceeded, and thence advantured at sea for years in the service of Sichmi, the enterprising chief of the island, was situated between Iceland and Greenland, and has since been swallowed by the sea in a great earthquake. Dr. Belknap * coincided in this opinion...

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* American Biog. V. I. p. 74.

[ 425-429 ]



Review  of  Books.
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Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics, with some additional Discoveries, &c., by which it may be aplied to decypher the names of the Ancient Kings of Egypt and Ethopia. By H. Salt, Esq., His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General in Egypt. London, 1825. 8vo.

One great distinction between the English and French schools of Egyptian research is, that the latter, elevated by the sublimity of the subject, as well as prompted by national character, have been inclined to impute too exorbitant an antiquity to Egyptian monuments; whereas the former, following the more modest footsteps of Mr. W. HamHton, and the colder genius of their country, have been induced to consider many of those monuments capable of illustration by comparison with Greek and Roman inscriptions, and are disposed to infer their comparatively recent origin. The difference is very great, -- one carrying back the date of certain Egyptian monuments to the period succeeding the flood; the other limiting their antiquity to a period immediately preceding and succeeding the Christian aera. In our view, both schools are wrong: ultraism, in fact, is always wrong. In medio tutissimus ibis. In this, as in every thing else, the golden mean is most likely to be nearest the truth.

The same distinction reigns throughout the rival pretensions of Dr. Young and M. Champollion. Dr. Young, in his phonetic illustration of proper names, has, with one or two exceptions, stopped at the names of the Greek and Roman potentates of Egypt M. Champollion has carried his system of phonetic interpretation into the remotest dynasties of Egypt. So, in valuing the antiquity of Belzoni's excavation, Dr. Young has brought down the date to the period of a prince living about 500 years before the Christian aera; and committed the mistake of burying one of the Saite dynasty, at Thebes. M. Champollion has referred the date to the remote ages of Memnon and Sesostris, and with greater probability, as it will be shewn; since the latter were of the Diospolite dynasty of the Egyptian kings, and were certainly buried within the vicinity of the above excavation at Thebes. In the same spirit, Dr. Young ridicules the metaphysical interpretation of his predecessors, Zoega, Palin, Pauw, and especially Kircher. Having hitherto met with nothing but fulsome triumphal inscriptions, or deeds for the conveyance of land, he is inclined to rate the far-famed "Egyptian wisdom" very low; to entertain great doubts that Plato, Pythagoras, and the Greek philosophers, derived any "solid knowledge" from Egyptians; to presume that they had neither astronomical, nor geometrical records; and to join in the contempt and ridicule which Juvenal scatters upon them. M. Champollion, and the French Savant, on the contrary, are inclined to infer that, next to the Hebrew scriptures, the hieroglyphics will, when decyphered, be found to contain the most important records of man's origin and progressive civilization which have ever been submitted to the world.

As Mr. Salt, in the preface to his work, recording the additions he has made to the discoveries of Dr. Young and M. Champollion, states that he presumes the reader to be familiar with the state of Egyptian inquiry at the point of time where he takes up the thread of it; it will be necessary, for a correct appreciation of his labours, and those of his English and French allies, to give
[426]
a succinct detail of the progress and condition of Egyptian research, as effected by modern inquirers, up to the present time.

Father Kircher's six volumes contain some faithful though inelegant representations of such Egyptian monuments as had, before his days, been brought to Europe. Prepossessed with the idea that they contained the most profound and mysterious doctrines of philosophy, theology, and metaphysics, he adapts his system to the hieroglyphics, instead of deriving it from them. It is a petitio principii throughout. Any given modern discovery or theory in physics, or metaphysics, might, upon his principle, be discovered in certain hieroglyphics; and all human invention be shifted on the "Atlantean shoulders" of Egyptian wisdom. However, the "learned visionary," as Warburton calls him, has been content with discovering among the sculptured archives of the vanished kingdom of the Pharoahs, the theological mysteries of the church, handed down from Adam to Ham, and from him to the Egyptians. The original inscriptions, according to him, are due either to Seth, Enoch, or Mizraim; and this miracle attends his interpretation -- that it has the advantage of being able to succeed equally well, whether he begins at the end of any series of figures, or takes Rabelais's advice, and "begins at the beginning."

One ridiculous circumstance, connected with the learned Jesuit's interpretation is, that the Pamphilian and Barberinian obelisks, on both of which he has expended a folio of research, have been since discovered to be spurious imitations of the Egyptian style, consisting of emblems put together in a manner entirely arbitrary, and sculptured by Roman artists. It is right, however, that justice should be done to Kircher. In his metaphysical interpretation of the Egyptian monuments, he is supported by the whole body of the latter Platonists. It is still more certain, and more "germane to the matter," though neither M. Champollion nor Dr. Young has acknowledged the prior claim, that the first, discoveries in phonetic illustration of names were made by him. This, a reference to his Prodromus Copticus will prove: it is true, that he gave a syllabic power, rather than an initial, to his phonetic signs; but this is the very charge that M. Champollion brings against Dr. Young. Thus, if Kircher discovered in the cognominal tablet over an Egyptian personage a pomegranate, he would call the: name of the individual Erman, that being the Coptic name for the sign; and this, on the principle of modern heraldry, which represents a man's name in the same manner; namely, a hammer or mallet for the Mallets; a lion for the Lyons, &c. So Dr. Young, in the case of Berenice, interprets the first symbol -- a basket, syllabically, ber; while M. Champollion gives it only the initial power of the consonant B. It is our opinion, that, notwithstanding Dr. Young is inclined to recant on this point, both he and Kircher will be found to be in many cases right; and the more so, because we are convinced that modern heraldry is a fragment of the hieroglyphical language, and warrants the syllabic interpretation. That this was partly the case, in enchorial representations of proper names, ia proved by instances adduced by Dr. Young himself; thus, in the names Amonrasonther and Amonorytius,* the first part of each name is written syllabically, by means of the symbol of the god Amon ; the latter phonetically, or alphabetically.

The Chevalier Palin, in his mode of interpreting the hieroglyphics, is still more open to ridicule than the Jesuit Kircher. Instead of beginning at the commencement or the end, he, in one instance, by way of variety, begins in the middle; and instead of discovering that the hieroglyphics were executed
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by the chisel of Enoch or the graving tool of Seth, he finds that Hebrew translations of many of the Egyptian roils of papyrus are to be found in the Bible, under the title of the "Psalms of David!" De Pauw follows a similar track, apprizing us that we have nothing to do but to translate the Psalms of David into Chinese, and to write them in the ancient character of that language, in order to reproduce the Egyptian papyri that were found with the mummies! Zoega is more frank; for, after encumbering the field of letters with his ponderous volume on the obelisks, and after collecting all that was really on record, he very candidly confesses that the sum and substance of the whole amount to nothing! Baron Humboldt's theory of the analogy between the Egyptian and Mexican monuments is deeply interesting and ingenious; but it does not bear on the subject of inquiry into the phonetic system. Del Rio's work on the Ruined Palencian City in Guatemala is more to the purpose. The tablets over the heads of Mexican heroes, represented in the plates, demonstrate that the Mexican mode of distinguishing names was generally similar to that of the Egyptians; it was, however, syllabic or heraldic -- as in the instance of Acamapolzin, whose device was a hand grasping reeds, which the name signifies; and Chimalpoca, the cognominal symbol being a shield emitting smoke, which the name also implies.

We have already done justice to Kircher respecting his prior claim to the phonetic system. A similar justice is due to our own countryman Warburton, who, in his "Divine Legation," has entirely anticipated Champollion. We should rather say that Champollion has borrowed his system without acknowledging it. Warburton's theory is this: the first kind of writing consisted in the pictures of things (these are what M. Champollion calls anaglyphs); but the bulk of such memorials rendering abridgment indispensable, necessity introduced the system of hieroglyphics, which effected its purpose by three ways: 1st. By substituting a circumstance for the whole of an event; 2d. by substituting simple marks for the outlines of the pictures, which may be called the running hand of hieroglyphics; 3d. by what Clemens Alexandrinus calls the epistolographic method, from whence there is an easy transition to the alphabet. Such is the borrowed theory of Champollion. With regard even to the discovery of the phonetic signs or alphabet, Warburton, in the same work, infers the derivation of alphabets, as M. Champollion does, from hieroglyphics, and proves it in the same way, viz. by the retention of the symbolic names for each sign or letter. The description of Clemens Alexandrinus is to the same effect; the 1st arrangement of the Egyptian letters was the epistolographic, which was peculiar to the people; 2d, the hieratic, which was peculiar to the priests; and 3d, the hieroglyphic, which was again subdivided into kyriologic, or phonetic, and symbolic. Thus the symbolic and the phonetic characters were used contemporaneously: and the symbolic letters were again subdivided into 1st, the imitative; 2d, the tropical, or figurative (including anaglyphs); and 3d, the enigmatical.

The more, therefore, we sift the matter, the more we shall be convinced that the phonetic system is not a modern discovery. Two more circumstances will complete the proof of bad faith or singular ignorance in the pretended discoverers: 1st. the Chinese language (and it has always been stated by those who have employed themselves upon it) has possessed a phonetic system, for the purpose of representing the sounds of names, from time immemorial; and 2d, the Hebrew alphabet (a fact on which Kircher founded his syllabical phonetic process) consists even now of the fragments of phonetic signs, which retain their old names, as aleph, a bird; beth, a house; gimel
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a camel. Many of these Hebrew phonetic signs are the ???? ?? those composing Dr. Young's phonetic alphabet. The fact is, that the Hebrew language might be entirely written to this day in phonetic symbols, as well as in alphabetical characters.

Having thus reduced the pretended modern discovery of the phonetic system to its real value, the road is clear for deciding between the rival pretensions of Dr. Young and Champollion, as to which of them was the first to apply the system to the interpretation of sculptured proper names. On fair consideration, we do not hesitate to award the palm, such as it is, to Dr. Young. M. Champollion, with some periphrasis, appears to admit that Dr. Young first interpreted the names of Ptolemy and Berenice: but he attempts to subvert his claim by the allegation that the discovery was not scientifically made; and that Dr. Young has "mistakingly vitiated phonetic analysis," by giving a syllabic power, instead of initial, to the phonetic characters constituting the name. If the result of Dr. Young's process produced the true interpretation, it will be obvious that the objection does not invalidate Dr. Young's claim, and that fhe title of first interpreter of the name in question belongs to him. All that M. Champollion has done is improving on his suggestion, and following his clue.

Dr. Young, in his "Account of Some Recent Discoveries," has decyphered thé names of most of the deities, and many of the Greek and Roman rulers of Egypt, by the phonetic alphabet, and a great number of Egyptian proper names, written in the epistolograpbic character. To these, Champollion has added a considerable number of the Ptolomies and Caesars; and no less than thirty of the Pharaohs, which names, as he asserts, accord with the traditions of Manetho. But to Dr. Young belongs a merit which neither M. Champollion nor any other person can dispute with him; it consists in the substantial achievement of affixing a precise meaning to no le»s than 200 hieroglyphics. These interpretations we believe to be generally accurate, not less on account of the careful and experimental process employed in obtaining them (viz. that of comparing their local relations on the Rosetta stone with the enchorial and Greek characters), than from the internal evidence which their imitative form, as well as their combinations, supply. Thus we have a hatchet for God as a Creator; a hatchet, with the feminine symbol of an egg and a semi-circle, for goddess; two hatchets, with two nails signifying security, for Soteres or saviour gods. Here the plural number is expressed in the same manner as by the Chinese; repetition signifying plurality, and three characters an indefinite plurality: sometimes the latter qualifications are signified by two or three bars attached to the original characters. Again, day is composed of two characters; one representing the sun, the other splendour: illustrious, of two characters, one implying splendour, as before; and two legs signifying bearing: good is a guitar; whence the Platonic idea of music being the good: beneficent, or doing good, consists of a guitar and a patera, the latter implying bestowing, &c. &c. &c. Two other characters, proved by their locality on the Rosetta stone, are worth naming, because they show that the contempt generally thrown (and among others by Dr. Young himself) on ancient expounders of hieroglyphics, as Horus Apollo and Hermapion, is ill-deserved; one is the character of a goose for son, as Horus Apollo asserts; the other, that of a bull with an arm, and a hawk, for mighty Apollo -- as Hermapion signified when interpreting the first part of the Heliopolitan obelisk, according to the testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus.

The preceding detail brings down the history of Egyptian discovery to
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the status, in which Mr. Salt, in the work before us, takes it up. It is preceded by a dedication to the Right Hon. C. Yorke, and accompanied by some notes from the pen of Mr. Bankes, jun., who has also increased the value of the work by a lithographical engraving of that valuable document, the Genealogical Table of Abydos. In this publication, Mr. Salt declares himself to be a convert to the phonetic system, of which he first entertained doubts; since it "appeared to him a very vague and conjectural hypothesis." The proof which he now adduces of the "solidity of the basis on which it is founded," is indeed highly satisfactory, since it exhibits two persons, in two distant parts of the globe, without the slightest communication, coming by different modes of deduction to the same conclusion. Mr. Salt has added two new phonetic characters to Dr. Young's alphabet, viz. a pair of tongs and a beetle for D, T, or Th. To the previous collections of Roman emperors, he has added the names of Nero, Commodus, Adrian, Antoninus, and Domitian; he has, likewise, discovered a considerable number of names of the Pharoahs and their queens, some known to chronology, and some not: the most remarkable of the former are Thotkmosis, who, according to the conjoint testimony of Josephus, Manetho, and Charœmon, was the Pharoah who expelled the Jews from Egypt; and Misarte, who erected the obelisk now standing at Matarea. Among the Ethiopian kings appears the name of Tirhakah, who is mentioned in the Book of Kings; Sabaco, supposed to be the So of scripture; and Zerah. The name of Athurte, the princess who, according to Josephus, was daughter to Amenophis, and preserved Moses, is also among Mr. Salt's discoveries. The phonetic names of Rameses me Amun, and of his son Amenoph or Memnon, among the Diospolite kings, are, to our mind, perfectly established; that of Memnou is, in fact, taken from his celebrated vocal statue.

We are surprised to remark that Mr. Salt draws no inference from the propinquity of the phonetic name of Memnon to the phonetic characters composing the name of the Diospolite king to whom Belzoni's excavation appertained; nor does Mr. Bankes, though his Genealogical Table of Abydos completes the proof necessary to ascertain the personage. The above inference goes to subvert Dr. Young's theory, that it was the tomb of Psaramis, if, indeed, the fact of the whole of the dynasty of Psammis being Saites, and buried at Sais, ought not to have caused its rejection from the first. In two successive articles, published three years ago in the Album, on the subject of the tenant of Belzoni's tomb, the author of this paper maintained that it was Sethos, or Sesostris the Great, the son of Amenoph or Memnon. The opinion is now confirmed; 1st, by Mr. Bankes' Table of Abydos, wherein the name of the individual stands next in succession to that of Memnon; Sid, by the paternal coat of arms of Memnon, as exhibited by Mr. Salt, being coupled on the accompanying shield with the phonetic name of his son and successor throughout the excavation: the latter is the name absurdly assigned to Peammis. There can, therefore, be no doubt that Sesostris, the son of Amenoph, was buried in the magnificent alabaster sarcophagus now in Mr. Soane's possession. It is singular, that the sitting figure of Ptha, being the first phonetic character of the name of Memnon, is erased from the oval shield on the vocal statue ; but it remains in the excavation. Hence the name was originally Phamenoph, as the Egyptians told Pliny: who adds that the month Phamenoph was named after him. The erasure, therefore, which Mr. Salt found, in a great number of other instances, was, probably, made to distinguish the name of the month from the name of the individual. Pliny records
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another, remarkable circumstance ; that the adjacent Memnunium was a serapeum in which Sesostris was deified, as the sun or Serapis, under the name of Ismendes, or the producer of sound. Figures of Serapis appear on all sides of Belzoni's excavation. It was probably the sepulchral portion of the same serapeum; and the whole may have been identical with the palace and tomb of Osyniandes.

In one thing we cannot concur with Mr. Salt. Having confessed, in the first instance, that he entertained a prejudice against the phonetic system, he is hurried, by the usual zeal of conversion beyond due bounds, in expecting extravagant results from it. He does "noi hesitate to say" (such are his expressions) "that with a complete knowledge of Coptic a person will be able, by the aid of the phonetic system, to decypher whole inscriptions." In this he has abandoned the substantial and cautious ground of illustration taken by Dr. Young, to follow the "will-of-the-wisp" of M. Champollion's vague and migratory logic. Does Mr. Salt, then, think that the Egyptians, after all (instead of merely, expressing the sounds of names phonetically, which they were, compelled to do), expressed ideas also by the same process? What is this but saying that there was, strictly speaking, no hieroglyphical language at all; but that what we have hitherto called so was, in reality, a vague, indefinite and irregular alphabetical system? Clemens Alexandrinus, however, and all contemporary authors who have written on the subject, testify that this was not the case; that ideas, not sounds, were represented by the symbolical part of the language; and this Dr. Young has fully confirmed by those 200 well-established ideographical characters, to some of which we have adverted.

We believe that much may be done; but are sorry to chill speculation by expressing our decided opinion, that, generally speaking, the language sought to be interpreted is, from the very nature of things, uninterpretable. The Egyptians either had no dictionaries, or have left none: who, then, can possibly hope to interpret the infinite number of abstract signs for ideas, which the priests may have adopted from the influence of caprice, of scientific prejudice, or local customs; and which might have been, for the greatest part, arbitrary and conventional? Whoever pretends to this, may as well pretend to the power of evoking the Egyptian hierarchy from the dead. We are astonished how any man of the least reflection can yield his reason to the delusive charm of so improbable an interpretation. Some shallow and trivial meanderings from the mainstream of the ancient language may be traced -- some drops from the deep springs of the great source of language identified -- and some detached collections of its waters sounded and explored; but the head of the great volume of waters is, and must be, a "fountain sealed."

The collection of the phonetic names and hieroglyphical signs of the principal divinities, of which the remainder of Mr. Salt's work is made up, is not new; the characteristic crests or heraldic symbols of those divinities have been long familiar to the antiquarian. But the collection is useful, as contributive to a practical adaptation of the phonetic system, since Egyptian proper names are, in most cases, composed of the names of divinities: and nothing is more dearly established than the circumstance that, as in the hieroglyphical writing, it was customary to mingle the image of the deity among the phonetic characters designed to compose a similar, but human cognomen; so, in the epistolographic writing, it was usual to express a name in part phonetically, and in part hieroglyphically -- a circumstance which greatly enhances the difficulty of phonetic interpretation.

Premiums for Geographical Discoveries. -- There exists in Paris, a Geographical Society, which appears to have large funds, that are devoted to promote the science which gives its name to the Society. By a late arrival from Havre, we have received from M. L. Beront, a member of this Society, the programme of the premiums now offered for discoveries, together with a letter inviting us to aid, if we should see fit, the views of himself and colleagues, by making public in the United States such parts of the programme as relate to investigations on the continent. We cheerfully comply with the invitation, which will, perhaps be best understood by translating an extract from M. Beront's letter, and that portion of the proposals that concerns the Americans. Mr. Beront says, "among the investigations proposed are, two relative to America -- the first having for its object, to describe the interior of Guiana -- the other to give a more exact and detailed account than we yet possess, of the ruins of the ancient city of Palenque, situated in the Province of Guatemala.

"The inhabitants of the United states, having it more easily in their power than others to visit the countries near them, it would be equally for the interest of our society, and of the science we cultivate, that a translation of such portions of the programme as relates to these two objects, should be published in the journal committed to your charge. In so doing, you may count in advance upon the thanks of the society." &c. &c.

Translated from the Programme.

4th prize -- a gold medal of the value of 5000 ($1000) for a voyage of discovery to the interior of Guiana.

It is required that the unknown parts of French Guiana be reconnoitered, the position of the sources of the River Maroni be determined, and investigation extended as far as possible to the west, in the direction of the second parallel of north latitude, and in following the lone of separation between the waters of the Guianas and the Brazil.

The traveller must establish upon scientific principles the geographical positions, and the levels of the principal points, and bring back the materials for a new and exact map.

The Society desires that he should also collect vocabularies of the different tribes.

The premium is to be awarded in the first general meeting in 1829.

5th prize -- American Antiquities -- a gold medal of the value of 2400 ($480)

The following are the conditions of obtaining this premium:

A more exact and detailed description than we yet possess, of the ruins of the ancient city of Palenque, situated north-west of the village of St. Domingo Palenque, near the River Micol, in the state of Chiapa, if the former kingdom of Guatemala, and designated under the name of the Casas de Piedras, in the report addressed in 1787, to the King of Spain, by Antonio del Rio.

The author must give picturesque views of the monuments, with plans and sections of the principal details of their sculpture. The apparent connexion of these monuments, with others in Guatemala and Yucatan, make it desirable that the traveller should examine, if possible, the ancient Utalban, near Santa Cruz del Quiche, in the province of Solola, the ancient fortress of Mexico, and several similar ones; the ruins of Copan, in the State of Honduras; those of the Isle of Peten in the lagoon of Itza; upon the limits of Chiapa, Yucatan, and Verapaz, the ancient buildings situated in Yucatan, and 20 leagues south of Merida, between Mora-y-Ticul and the city of Noiacab, and finally the edifices in the neighborhood of the city of Mani, near the River Largartos.

The Bas reliefs, representing the adoration of a Cross such as that engraved in the work of Del Rio, will be sought after. It is important to ascertain the analogy between these different edifaces, regarded as the works of the same people and the same state of the arts. In relation to geographical matters, the society requires, 1st. particular maps of the cantons where these ruins are situated, together with topographical plans -- these maps must be made in the most exact manner. 2d. The absolute height above the sea, of the principal points. 3d. Remarks upon the physical condition and productions of the country.

The Society also requires some notice of the traditions relative to the people to whom the construction of these monuments is ascribed; with observations as to the manners and customs of the aborigines, and the Vocabularies of ancient idioms. Special enquiry will be made as to the tradition of the country respecting the age of these edifices, and particularly as to any proof, that figures drawn with a certain degree of correctness, were anterior to the conquest.

Finally the authors will collect all that is known respecting Votaw [sic - Votan?] or Wodaw of the inhabitants of Chiapa, a personage compared with Odin and Budda.

The memorial, maps and drawings, must be deposited at the bureau of the central commission before the 1st January, 1830.

Note 1: The exact date of this article remains undetermined: the text was transcribed from a reprint that appeared in the Sept. 28th issue of a Washington, D.C. newspaper, the Daily National Journal. A similar article also ran in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post of Sept. 23rd. Additional information included in other, contemporary news reports was that the "Memoirs must be written in French, and sent (with the name of the authors, under a seal) to the President of the Society, Taranne Street, No. 12, Paris, in France," etc.

Note 2: Announcements, translated into in English, of an offering of this sort of prize, by the Geographical Society of Paris, appeared in the American popular press as early as 1825 -- see the Cincinnati Literary Gazette of Jun. 4, 1825 for one such report from the Geographical Society of Paris, offering prizes of four thousand francs each, for the best accounts on various subjects pertaining to American antiquities. A gold medal was offered at that time for the "best description of ancient American ruins," received in Paris, before the beginning of 1836. Evidently no specific mention was made of "Palenque" in the 1825 prize offering. For similar news of French prize offerings for new discoveries in American antiquities, see the New York Palmyra Reflector of Oct. 28, 1829.

Note 3: Although he was unable to journey to Guatamala to inspect "the Ruins of the Ancient city of Palenque," this notice of the French offer, published in the Saturday Evening Post, appears to have caught the eye of Prof. Constantine S. Rafinesque, lately arrived in Philadelphia from Lexington, Kentucky. See Rafinesque's letter, published in the Jan 13, 1827 issue of the Post..

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Remarks on the Ruins at Palenque, in Guatemala, and on the
Origin of the American Indians, By John Ranking, Esq.

These ruins are situated on a plain, named Palenque, in the province of Ciudad Real de Chiapa, near the borders of Guatemala and Yucatan, in north latitude, by Robertson's map, 17 degrees 30 minutes.

A description of this ancient city has been published in English, * translated from the manuscript of Captain Don Antonio del Rio, dated Palenque, 1787, accompanied with a critical investigation into the history of the ancient Americans, by Doctor Paul Felix Cabrera, of the city of New Guatemala, dated 1794. The following is a summary:

The king of Spain having ordered another examination of these ruins, Captain Del Rio proceeded to the site of the ancient city, which is called Casas de Piedras (stone houses) for the purpose of effectually clearing away the trees and copsewood which hid the principal building. With seventy-nine Indians and forty axes the wood was cut down in fifteen days, and was consumed in a general conflagration, which enabled the party to continue their operations with more facility. The pick-axes were reduced to three, and the iron crow-bars to seven; but, by dint of perseverance, all that was necessary to be done was effected, and, ultimately, there remained neither a window nor a doorway blocked up, nor a room, corridor, court, tower,

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* By H. Berthoud, Regents-Quadrant, and Suttaby & Co., Stationers-court, 4to, 1822, with seventeen plates. "The original manuscript of Captain del Rio, with the criticism of Dr. Cabrera, was found in the archives of New Guatemala, and is open for inspection at Mr. Berthoud' s." -- Prefatory Address.

136                       Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque.                      

nor subterranean passage, in which excavations were not effected two or three yards in depth.

There are fourteen stone houses situated upon a height, some more dilapidated than others, but many of their apartments being perfectly discernible. At the base of the highest mountain forming the ridge, there is a plain four hundred and fifty yards long and three hundred wide. I